OR if they can find a private company to purchase the land for passenger rail with no use of emminent doamin and no expenditure of public monies.
No, I would be in favor of Antitrust Legislation (or better yet... a Constitutional Amendment) that banned private rights-of-way.
It doesn't matter if we're talking airway, highway, waterway, roadway or railway... NO PRIVATE ENTITY should be granted monopolistic power to restrict our freedom to travel.
Even the freight tracks should be nationalized.
Let the private freight carriers actually compete against each other, just like the trucking companies have to do on our highways, the airlines have to do on our airways, and barge companies on our waterways.
Socialism never works. It doesn't matter if we're talking airway, highway, waterway, roadway or railway... NO PRIVATE ENTITY should be granted monopolistic power to restrict our freedom to travel.
No private entity has that power. Nor would a privately owned rail system, (like most rails we have now) confer that power. UNless of course you ban cars to keep us peasants supporting your trains.
Even the freight tracks should be nationalized.
What right do you (or anyone) have to steal the property that the rail lines own (or license)? I know you really like passenger trains but resorting to communism just to get you choo choo is a little extreme.
Let the private freight carriers actually compete against each other,
They already do on long hauls. On short hauls it is not financially feasible. (For example, the traffic to my town doesn't even support one rail line profitably let alone several)